Single London court has case backlog twice as long as all of Wales
A SINGLE court in London has a backlog of delayed cases almost double that for the whole of Wales, forcing victims to wait more than 300 days on average for their case to come to trial.
Ministry of Justice data published yesterday for the period between July and September 2022 showed crown court backlogs in England and Wales hit a record high of 62,766 cases waiting for trial, up from 35,774 in a similar quarter in pre-covid 2019, and prior to the criminal barristers’ strike.
One of the biggest single backlogs was Snaresbrook Crown Court, in east London, where there were 3,937 cases outstanding, compared with 2,251 for the whole of Wales.
Across London, victims are having to wait 319 days on average from the point their case is transferred to crown court to the completion of their trial, among the highest in England and Wales. Only victims in West Midlands (409 days), Lincolnshire (383 days), West Mercia (376 days) and Bedfordshire (366 days) faced longer waits than those attending London courts.
By contrast, victims with cases going through courts in Durham and North Yorkshire had to wait half that time at 149 days, Humberside (151 days), Devon and Cornwall (166 days) and North Wales (169 days).
Claire Waxman, London’s Victims’ Commissioner, said: “Today’s data from the crown courts shows us a system still in crisis, with the Government not taking the swift action needed to resolve
these issues. These backlogs have a devastating impact on victims, exacerbating their stress and trauma as they wait years for justice.”
On average, rape victims have been waiting 260 days for their cases to come to trial in England and Wales. But fraud victims have been waiting the longest – on average, 399 days across England and Wales.
Kirsty Brimelow, KC chair of the Criminal Bar Association, blamed a lack of prosecutors, which appeared to be disproportionately hitting violence and sex offences. Over the 15 months to Sept 30 2022, 364 crown court trials were aborted on the day they were listed to begin owing to no prosecutor being available, nearly half (173) involved violence and sexual offence cases, according to a CBA analysis of the MOJ data. This compares with just 26 trials similarly aborted due to prosecutor unavailability during the same period three years ago.
“There needs to be an immediate increase of prosecution fees to match the deal secured by the defence. Increasingly, prosecutors are not prepared to prosecute in cases where their fee is about 20 per cent less than their defence counterpart,” said Ms Brimelow.